LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Respecting the faith of clients and counselors
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
10/2022
Respecting the faith of clients and counselors
The Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) describes
itself as “an organization of counselors and human development professionals who believe
spiritual, ethical, and religious values are essential to the overall development of the person
and are committed to integrating these values into the counseling process.” Although ASERVIC
is a division of the American Counseling Association, and all counselors likely would agree to the
importance of ethics, not all counselors share the mission of ASERVIC in its entirety.
With some counselors and counselor educators, this is related to a lack of knowledge, in
particular because few counseling programs other than those whose own missions include the
integration of faith address spirituality and religion thoroughly. Still other counselors and
counselor educators perceive a value conflict between counseling and religion or spirituality.
Although other spiritual, ethical and religious values should be explored, this article pertains
specifically to the Christian faith because I believe this is something that is often misunderstood
and overlooked by many counselors and counselor educators.
Unfortunately, many individuals in the counseling field are not comfortable addressing
issues of faith. Although the majority of Americans highly value faith, the same cannot be said
of mental health professionals, according to researcher Pamela Paul. If counseling students are
not being trained to assess and treat from a faith-based perspective, how can they best meet
the needs of clients who are seeking this?
The lack of comfort and competency in this area is reflected across presentations,
publications and even Listservs such as CESNET (the Counselor Education and Supervision
Network). At best, this is because of a lack of knowledge, training or understanding. At worst, it
is a brushoff of the Christian faith of clients in particular, if those clients are conservative or
evangelical. Sadly, it is not just clients’ faith that is sometimes disrespected. Often, the Christian
faith of the counselor is not respected by fellow counselors either.
From a personal perspective, I have seen many professional counselors put in writing
disparaging remarks about conservative and evangelical Christians including their own clients. If
these counselors are making those comments publicly, how can we ensure that they are
